Our Fiji Bure

Our latest adventure

Meg and Graeme are now the proud owners of a traditional buré (house) in Fiji. Our house is on the island of Vanua Balavu in the Lau group of islands in the eastern part of Fiji, near Tonga. We have built it on the family land of Tevita and Carolyn Fotofili who own and manage Moana’s Guest House near the village of Lomaloma.

We intend to continue to visit regularly but this is to let you know that the house is also available for family, friends and colleagues to use. There is a basic charge per week to cover maintenance costs please contact us if you are interested in visiting this wonderful place.

The island is a place of great beauty with good snorkeling on the reef, beautiful forests and some of the most friendly people we have ever met. If you think holidays are about lying beside the pool with cold drink in hand in a resort then this place is not for you. Life on Vanua Balavu is simple. There are few tourists but if you like swimming, snorkeling, walking and reading this is a great place to visit. The fishing is also good and even the dedicated non-fisher was rewarded with coral trout, trevally and barracuda. You can also arrange to take a picnic lunch to a nearby uninhabited island or a day trip in a boat to the beautiful Bay of Islands where there are many small limestone islands – some with large caves to explore.

The house will have it’s own bathroom and composting toilet and basic cooking facilities by about mid-year. It’s also possible to arrange meals through the guest house. Vanua Balavu has two flights a week from Suva which take a little over one hour. If you think that this sounds like the sort of no star, but comfortable and relaxing holiday you would enjoy please contact us for more details or visit www.moanasguesthouses.com

AH HA

We visited Vanua Balavu for most of January this year when the bure was being built. After we had been there for a couple of weeks it occurred to me one day that I hadn’t been thinking about work at all. This is unusual, in fact it’s never happened before. I generally like the work I do and prefer not to have a major distinction between work and the rest of my life. I’m generally happy to think about work at any odd time. I rolled the thought around a little, wondering why I wasn’t thinking about work – and couldn’t find a reason. We stayed another few weeks and I still didn’t think about work. I don’t know why, but I think this was a good thing. It was certainly a new experience for me.